


The Eternal Sunshine Of The Mind Of Abed Nadir

by moonage_daydreamer



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Fusion, Bromance to Romance, M/M, Pop Culture, Requited Unrequited Love, Reunions, Troy and Abed in the Morning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:14:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22889038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonage_daydreamer/pseuds/moonage_daydreamer
Summary: In which Abed Nadir has his memory wiped of Troy four years after Troy said he’d be back, and then they meet again that year.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 24
Kudos: 91





	1. It’s Like That Now

Abed writes the note on a post-it with sharpie, the day before Troy leaves. He tapes it to the back of their most recent copy of Best Friends Weekly, and puts the poorly-made construction paper magazine back into Troy’s luggage.

He reads it over seconds before he does that, just to make sure everything looks okay, he wants things to be nice for Troy when he eventually reads it. “MEET ME IN GREENDALE” it says, and he notices that the lines are shaky. His hands are shaking, and he mentally berates himself, and then he feels a little imaginary Britta voice telling him that this is okay, that this is normal.

“Hey, buddy!” Troy breaks the silence, and his voice is kind, gentle, coaxing, but not patronizing. “Annie made a cake, if you wanted to have a piece.” He smiles sentimentally, and Abed can tell by his stance and tone that he’s been crying.

Before, he would have been compelled to mention such a thing, but since Troy, and Annie, and the rest of Greendale, he’s learned that not everything needs to be said, some things can just be held in a mutual understanding.

“It’s chocolate, with vanilla ic-”

“I love you.” Abed launches forward until he can feel Troy’s face against his chest. “I love you so much.”

“Oh.” Troy breathes into his chest, and he can feel facial muscles contorting into a smile against him. “I love you too, Abed.”

“Come with me.” He says, breathless with desperation, hubris, and something bordering on hope. A new feeling

“You know I can’t, I have to leave tomorrow.”

“No, not forever. Just for tonight, come upstairs with me.” 

So they pull their jackets on with haste and race, hand in hand, to the roof of the apartment building.

“The sky’s so clear.” Troy mumbles when he’s sitting, cross-legged on the roof, wrapped in Abed’s long limbs. “We can see every star.” It’s abundantly clear to Abed that he’s only talking to have something to say, but that’s because he knows Abed likes it when he talks.

“Yeah.” Abed trails off. 

“It’s like, everything that made us is right there. How cool is that. That we’re all made out of stars and shit. I’ve always thought that you were made from a few more stars than everyone else, but thinking about how that might work got me fucked up, you know?”

Abed nodded. “Yeah.” He repeats.

“I could die right now, I really could.” Abed recognizes this as a line Troy loves, one from an Outkast song they’d listened to together once, and the narratives lined up so words felt right.

Then, Abed has his fingertips on Troy’s chin and he’s pressing his lips against Troy’s and his hands are on the back of Troy’s neck and Troy feels so warm, even in January.

Abed knows that Troy isn’t coming back when he says he will. He doesn’t know how he can tell, but he can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is super brief and i’m sorry, i hope you enjoy it regardless!


	2. I’m Just Your Problem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie tries to help Abed out.

It’d been six months since Troy had left, and Annie was starting to get really worried about Abed.

Since Troy left, there’d been an entire slew of bad days, days where Abed wouldn’t speak to anyone, other than making high-pitched noises whenever he was addressed unfavourably. 

She’d never done anything like that, but she recognized it. She’d seen people in rehab with sallowed cheeks and yellowed skin being shoved into the building with convulsing limbs and loose posture. It was familiar to her in a way that churned her stomach, so she decided to talk to Abed on a good day, one that came after a week of bad days.

“Abed,” she started, interrupting Adventure Time with a softly inquisitive voice “You haven’t been showing up to your classes lately.” 

“Yeah.” He answered, not looking away from the television.

“I know you miss Troy, but you can’t put your life on hold because he’s gone. I miss him too.”

“Not the same.” Abed’s frown deepened.

“I know.” She hoped that he’d quote a movie or make a comparison to a sitcom that’d been cancelled twenty years ago, but it was silent. “I also miss you, Abed.”

“I’m right here, Annie.”

“But not like you used to be.” 

“Elaborate further.”

“You’re all depressive and manic.” she tried to choose her words carefully. “I feel bad for you.”

“Feeling sorry for me must really put a damper on the complete lack of conflict in your storyline.” Abed replied bitterly, with a cold edge coming through on the sharper consonants.

“I have problems, Abed.” 

“What, your love triangle? Spoiler alert, he picks Britta.” He pantomimed the words.

“You know, grappling with whatever mental breakdown you’re going through right now doesn’t give you the license to be a jerk.”

“I’m not a jerk, you’re just overbearing.”

“I’m not overbearing. This is what friends do for each other.”

Abed swallowed a disagreement.

“I don’t have to do this! I could be living with someone else! Someone who I don’t have to clean up after or cook for.” Annie was shouting now, gesticulating manically as she did so.

“What does that have to do with me and Troy?” Abed asked, monotone in full force.

“You’re not the only person who’s in love with Troy!” Tears began streaming down her face. Abed had already known this, but hearing her say it out loud churned his stomach as he thought back to that night on the roof “And Troy wasn’t the only person who cared about you! I started this conversation because I care about you!”

The conversation went along this way for around twenty minutes, with both parties eventually realizing that no progress was being made, but also realizing how much they liked each other’s company.

Annie liked having another person around, the certainty that Abed would be home when she got home, the certainty that they’d be having special drink with dinner, and all their little unique routines, the delicate, idiosyncratic ecosystem of Casa De La Trobed that he and Troy had welcomed her into. She liked his objective, though sometimes impolite, worldview, and how it made her reevaluate her circumstances.

Abed found her fascinating, and warmed to her naturally nurturing disposition. He appreciated her pliability to his juvenile lifestyle, and how willing she was to delve into things like blanket forts and the Dreamatorium. He always felt like people would leave him eventually, get sick of buttered noodles and special drink and cartoons and the iconic films he based his identity on eventually. But Annie hadn’t, and she wouldn’t. He didn’t know why it was the case yet, but he liked that it was.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you.” Annie said quietly, shame dripping from her voice.

“I’m sorry too.” Abed didn’t elaborate further, he didn’t need to.

“I know what I said may have been contradictory,” She laughed at this, just to remove some of the seriousness of the atmosphere. “but I like living here.”

“I like that you live here.” Abed reassured her. “And I like that you care about me.”

“Really?” 

“Yeah. I don’t know how yet, but I’m gonna get help whenever I can, Annie.”

“Maybe you could start going back to class?” She asked gently “Or start showering again, if you wanted to take baby steps.” 

“I can do both.” He gave a slight smile, one almost indistinguishable from his typical neutral expression, and walked towards the bathroom. 

Abed still wasn’t especially happy, and he’d do anything to have Troy back, or at least press pause on the constant thought of Troy whirring in his mind every once in a while. But it was good to remember that he had another friend who was willing to help him through this, at least while Troy was gone. 

That night, a few hours after he’d gotten back from class, he edited the hours of footage of him and Troy that he couldn’t use in film class into a highlight reel, and then put it onto a flash drive. He watched it twice before falling asleep.


	3. Do It In Four (The Moon In Tokyo)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Britta has a half baked theory that shockingly isn’t that half baked, and an exploration of how LeVar helped Troy ethically run from his responsibilities.

It’s been two years since Troy Barnes left Greendale, and Britta compares Abed to a lot of things when talking to Jeff nowadays.

Her comparisons have described Abed as a butterfly, a bird leaving it’s nest, a phoenix and things of that nature, because, in his own way, Abed is flying.

He has passing or higher grades in all of his classes, plenty of attention from girls, who he rejects (which leads to Abed developing reputation that gives him plenty of attention from guys, and Annie trying and failing to make a more femme gay best friend), and to top it all off, several minor hits at indie film festivals, one of which culminating in him receiving two nominations at an award show. He wins neither, and his plus-one that’s actually a plus-five are all distraught.

In a text to Jeff at 9 pm, she begins to question her approach to classifying and comparing Abed.

“It seems like everything is coming up abed now, but there’s this unmistakable sadness behind his eyes.”

“britta, theres never been anything behind his eyes. they’re like a desktop w the monitor off. just let the kid thrive w/o britta-ing it up ffs”

“i’m not even going to validate all of the neurotypical bullshit you just spewed with a rebuttal. but anyway i think he misses troy.”

“hes visibly moved on, sure, they were very close friends, but abed isn’t gonna pine forever bc of that.”

“annie thinks they had sex on a roof.”

“the night b4 he left? she did seem adamant on getting u & shirley alone to gossip after he left with levar.”

“it’s weird that you remember that, it’s been two years. also, i’ll always wonder what you do with the seconds you save by using those stupid abbreviations.”

“it’s the 21st century, britta, plug in.” 

“who’s said plug in post-1998? that’s not the point tho. the point is, abed is totally in love with troy, according to annie.”

“is annie not a biased source given that she’s been totally in love with both troy and abed at various points in time?”

“true. she could be projecting, but i don’t think she is. troy and abed were always weirdly close.”

“and they have had sex twice, as far as i know.”

“what????”

“once for 1 of their kickpuncher fan films, abed showed it to me. i was disturbed & proud of them.”

“he definitely misses troy. notice how he turns down all of the girls and the gays who throw themselves at him?”

“tru.”

“it could mean that his sexual orientation is some form of demisexuality.”

“i don’t know what that means and i don’t especially want to know, so spare me the explanation.”

“you’re so not woke that it hurts, jeff.”

“go talk to ur tumblr mutuals, britta.”

“fuck off.”

“love u too.”

Britta was often wrong. And when she was wrong, it was to an almost impressive degree. In fact, if one were to compose a highlight reel of Britta’s daily life, at least 65% would be her being wrong. But, that day, Britta Perry was right.

-

The ocean roared as Troy looked into the darkened water, spray hitting his face and soaking his t-shirt. He stared into the waves below him, stroking his developing beard contemplatively. He should have been back in Colorado by last year, but it wasn’t that simple.

After the year ended, Troy became terrified about what Abed would think about him and the way he’d changed, so he began putting things off. He went to LeVar’s three vacation homes, went to four different countries to evaluate the difference in McDonalds, met Patrick Stewart in Madrid, and had many other grand and procrastination-based adventures. 

Following this, there were six months left in the year, and Troy was even more panicked about this than he’d been when he thought Abed would hate him. He relayed this information to LeVar with bated breath during one of his many small panic attacks.

“He’s gonna hate me LeVar, he thinks I’ve abandoned him, I can tell. And even if he doesn’t, what if I’ve changed too much and he doesn’t like me anymore. Or what if he’s changed, and now he has a really cool bachelor pad with multiple lava lamps and silk sheets and a girlfriend who wears pajamas a lot, and he doesn’t want to make movies anymore. What if he and Annie are dating now?” He spoke the words rapidly, in three choked, shuddering sobs.

“Breathe, Troy.”

“I’ve lost my best friend.”

“Not necessarily.”

“But he’s probably moved on.”

“You’re weirdly attached to him. Is there anything else going on that you haven’t told me about?”

“No...” Troy was visibly nervous, and he avoided LeVar’s eye contact.

“Alright.” LeVar cocked a suspicious eyebrow. “You know, you don’t have to go back it makes you this upset.”

“Really? You approve?” All of Troy’s better judgement immediately collapsed in the face of LeVar’s approval.

“Well, it takes three to five years to travel the world, and that’s what we’re here to do. I bet we could do in four.”

And now, Troy was sitting on the boat, three hours after midnight (GMT), looking into Tokyo’s waters. They seemed bluer there, but his perception was probably warped by years of anime. He thought about Abed, and how he’d introduced him to FLCL and Cowboy Bebop and a million other awesome shows and movies. He looked up, and hoped that somewhere, Abed was also looking at the same sky. The thing about moving on when you’re stuck in a boat is that it’s very hard to do. After a while, with no technology or TV, you start to hyper fixate on things and people that you love and can’t have. 

The moon wasn’t brighter in Tokyo, but that was probably because the moon in Colorado had Abed under it. 

Suddenly, some strange force at 12pm jostled him out of his sleep, and Abed felt a compulsion to look out the window of his and Annie’s apartment. He did so, immediately. You can’t disobey strange forces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for not updating this sooner, but i hope this fic finds you guys in good health! this is the first chapter that i included troy in, i hope i wrote him well! feel free to critique any glaring problems if you see them!


	4. Sliding Doors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a manic-pixie dream boy finds some agency in the narrative at the worst time possible.

Abed Nadir’s life changing completely comes not with a bang, nor with a whimper, but instead the thud of a thick and meticulously organized binder being dropped onto the coffee table.

“Good morning, Annie.” he sat up on the couch to face the bright-eyed girl in front of him. 

“Same to you.” she nodded in acknowledgment of the greeting.

“Why’d you drop a binder on the table in a way that was visibly intended to wake me up?” Abed asked, focusing more on picturing scenes from high school movies where delinquent students were woken up by teachers dropping books onto their desks than listening to Annie’s reply. It was a weirdly common trope, now that he thought about it.

“The binder’s for you.” she grinned with the satisfaction that usually came out of a productive night of researching. “I compiled a few articles and medical journals that I thought you should take a look at.”

“About...” he squinted at Annie’s neat penmanship on the soft blue binder cover “Lacuna Incorporated?” The name felt foreign in his mouth, he was completely unfamiliar with the company.

“It’s a medical firm that started in New York, they erase memories.” she explained

“Like in Total Recall, or Men In Black?”

“Kind of.”

“Awesome.” he flitted through the binder with a considerable increase in interest, and spoke again after a small pause once he’d finished an article titled ‘Lacuna Inc: Fact or Science Fiction?’. “So, is there a reason why you made this for me? Other than it being awesome?”

“Well…” she dragged on her words and fiddled with the fabric of her cardigan “I was thinking, there’s a Denver facility opening tomorrow, and I think it’d benefit you if we were to make an appointment with them.” 

“But I like my memories.” Abed contested.

“Not all of them. Just a specific topic.”

Abed read her expression for about two seconds to figure out what she was implying with her vague reply. “Troy?”

“Troy.” she confirmed.

“No way.” he replied. “That’s out of the question. He’s my best friend and he’s coming back.”

“But we don’t know that for sure, Abed. It’s been nearly four years. You didn’t see Baby Driver in theaters because you felt like he was going to come back on the day of the premiere, and you don’t have a girlfriend or a boyfriend because you’re waiting for him, and you don’t go to film festivals showing your films if they’re outside of Colorado as a precaution.” Annie looked at him with pure pity in her eyes. “I know how long you can wait for someone without moving on, I watched you during the Duncan Principle.” 

Abed frowned contemplatively. He’d been left behind to bide his time in Greendale County while Troy was chasing adventure in the ocean. Maybe it was about time that he moved on. 

Troy leaving him forever would be unfortunate, but ultimately unsurprising within the storyline. If anything, it was lazy and stereotypical screenwriting. Abed knew what he was, what he represented. He was the manic pixie dream boy of Troy’s narrative, and the manic pixie dream characters are just vehicles for the protagonist to grow up or get happier. People didn’t end up with manic pixie dream characters, they ended up with women like Annie, with sweet voices and kind smiles and soft cardigans, who were ready to get married and bear children.

Abed wanted to be someone that somebody would end up with. No, Abed rethought. Abed wanted to be a protagonist.

“Okay.” He nodded in Annie’s direction.

“Okay?” 

“Let’s do it.”

-

Troy rooted through his luggage, looking for a tie he’d gotten from Italy before he and LeVar went to dinner in Thailand.

“Troy, come on! We’re going to miss our reservation.” LeVar exclaimed from a few rooms away.

“I’m coming!” 

Suddenly, he saw something in the luggage’s front pocket that he hadn’t noticed before. A copy of Best Friends Weekly, one he’d somehow not seen in his almost four years of travelling with the luggage. Guilt rushed to his stomach.

As he flipped through the magazine, a note fell from the bottom.

“MEET ME IN GREENDALE.” it read in Abed’s large and even scrawl.

Troy felt like a piece of shit in a stupid-looking button up shirt. 

“You can go to dinner without me, I’ve got a lot to think about.” Troy called out to LeVar.

-

“So, you definitely want to go through with the memory erasing?” Annie asked.

“Yeah, I’m certain.”

“Good, because I’ve already made an appointment, set up your luggage, and packed the box.”

“What’s the box?”

“Are you even reading the articles?” Annie rolled her eyes. “The box is full of all of the items you own that remind you of Troy. They need them to make sure you don’t remember him after the surgery.”

“What’d you put in it?”

“His letterman jacket, a shocking amount of Best Friends Weekly copies, which I didn’t realize you guys actually updated weekly, a flash drive that ending up containing your sex tape, among other things.”

“It was for a Kickpuncher fan film.”

“Suuuure.” she smirked teasingly “We’re going on a road trip to Denver in like three hours.”

“Cool. Cool, cool, cool.”

-

Troy poured red wine for LeVar from an expensive bottle they'd gotten in Paris into a long-stemmed glass as the older man looked up at him expectantly.

“So, you said you’d had important news?” LeVar encouraged, taking the wine glass into his own 

“I do. I’ve thought a lot about it.” Troy looked at the toes of his sneakers nervously. If he said it, it’d be real, and he wouldn’t be able to take it back. “I’m not a kid anymore. I can’t run from my responsibilities and my friends, I need to go back to Greendale.”

“I-”

“It’s not like I haven’t appreciated this opportunity. It’s been an honour to do this with you, and I’ll always remember this and be your biggest fan. You taught me how to read, man. But I have people waiting for me at home.” Troy rambled. “There are people that I’m thinking about marrying. And I’ve taken these people for granted. So, I think it’s time for me to be a man and face those people, and do what I need to do, and I really hope you’re okay with that.”

“Troy, I can’t even put into words how proud I am of you.” LeVar smiled warmly. “Watching you become a man for these four years has been a privilege. We’ll leave tonight, and get there in around two days.” 

“Thank you so much.” Troy grinned from ear to ear, voice already breaking. “Um, I’m going to go to the bathroom and totally not cry at all.”

“Good luck with that.” LeVar chuckled.

-

“You ready to go?” Britta asked, carrying far too much luggage for her strength out to the parking lot with a confusing defiance which was presumably directed at the patriarchy.

“Yeah.” Abed walked towards the front seat of the SUV Annie rented, carrying a stack of tupperware containers that she’d apparently prepared as a meal plan for the road the night before, which was presumptuous, but right.

“Well,” Britta slammed the trunk shut with a sigh, and tried not to show that she was out of breath as she wiped sweat from her forehead. “Annie should be out in a minute.”

“Thanks for the help, Britta.” Abed climbed onto the nylon upholstery of the car, laying the containers on his lap.

“Any time.” she shrugged.

“Abed, you better be in the car and your seatbelt better be buckled!” Annie bounded towards the SUV. “If you aren’t, we’re a minute off schedule!”

“Good luck with that.” Britta snorted as she left the parking lot.


	5. Of All The Hotels In Denver, You Had To Walk Into Mine (Pt 1/2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically the one where they’re all in Denver

The walls of the waiting room were so white, and the ticking of the clock felt loud in Abed’s ears, due to an absence of any other noise in the room.

Abed had always hated hospitals.

He remembered being six and his mother taking him to the hospital to figure out if he had a mental disability without taking input from his father.

It’d caused an argument that had lasted the entire night, and when he woke up, his mother wasn’t home, and never would be again.

When the results came back from the hospital in the mail, his dad had ripped them up, saying that he didn’t care if he had a disability, because he was his son and he loved him.

“Wow, how exciting is this?” Annie grinned. “We’re making medical history right now.” 

She was only really saying this to loosen some of the ever-present tension in the waiting room. They were both extremely anxious about the upcoming procedure, Abed because he didn’t especially want to die, or forget Troy, and Annie because of the looming knowledge that she may have given her friend faulty advice and be proven wrong.

Abed nodded, but didn’t respond.

He flitted through memories of Troy in his head, savouring every second he’d had with the guy he was about to forget forever.

A lump rose in his throat when he reached the part where Troy was climbing onto the Childish Tycoon with LeVar and riding out of his life forever. That was why he was doing this, Abed reminded himself. Because Troy left him behind for money from some racist old guy, and never came back.

He wasn’t the one making a mistake here, he reassured himself.

Abed was beginning to notice that it became increasingly more difficult to reassure himself as he thought deeper and deeper into the procedure. He’d never been very good at lying to himself.

“Naduhr, Ay-bed?” A young but Waspy-looking blonde woman opened a set of wide double doors that led to a long hallway, which would presumably lead to an operating table or something.

“Good luck!” Annie whispered with a thumbs up.

“Thanks.” Abed rose, and followed the blonde woman down the hall while correcting her bluntly about the pronunciation of his name.

-

“Well,” LeVar smiled. “Here we are. Colorado.” He bit into a thick club sandwich.

They were sitting on the firm, red vinyl of a kitschy and 60s-inspired Denver diner, staring out the window as though Troy’s future was directly outside of it.

“Yep. Not Greendale though.” Troy smiled, this was the first vaguely familiar place he’d seen in years. It wasn’t entirely recognizable to him, but it was enough.

“Denver’s close enough, right? We could just stay here?” Troy’s face fell. “I’m kidding, son, I’ll get you to Greendale.”

“It’d be cool if we stayed at a hotel here, maybe just for the night. Not that I wouldn’t love to live in Denver with you in a really well-decorated apartment and be suave bachelors despite our many adoring suitors and fight crime after clocking out of our sophisticated and well-paying jo-”

“Troy, stay on topic.”

He nodded. “I have people waiting for me.”

“I don’t want to take the wind out of your sails, I just want to make sure that you know that life at Greendale didn’t pause for you. After four years of no contact, the same people might not be waiting for you.” LeVar explained wistfully.

“Nah, man, I’ve got Abed. He’s gonna be waiting for me, even if nobody else is. He’s my best friend.” 

“You talk a lot about this Abed.”

“Yeah, I love him.” Troy began to stammer, he didn’t want his hero to think he was gay. “In the way two men love each other. Uh, not in a gay way though, like, love between friends. There’s a Greek word for that.”

“Settle down, Troy.” LeVar placed a steadying and heavy hand on his shoulder. “It’s completely okay if you feel love for your friends, in TV and movies they often don’t portray loving and pure male friendships. Back when I played Geordi, I had to push for more moments between him and Data in the writers room.”

“I’d always thought Abed was like the Data to my Geordi. And Jeff would be Riker, and Annie would be Deanna, and Britta would be Dr. Crusher, and Shirley would be Guinan, and I’m in love with Abed in a not-friend way.” Troy’s hand clapped over his mouth as he processed what he just said. “You didn’t hear that.”

“Ah, the Freudian slip.” LeVar chuckled.

“What’s a Freudian?” Troy sipped at his chocolate milkshake.

-

“Britta, come look at this!” Jeff called from the kitchen of his apartment.

Britta furrowed her eyebrows in an attempt to adjust to the sunlight pouring in through the bedroom window and wrapped Jeff’s silk sheet around her previously nude form as she walked towards the kitchen.

“Hmmm.” She took the mustard-yellow card into her hand and eyed it contemplatively. “That was smart of them.”

“Dear Mr/Mrs. WINGER. ABED NADIR is having TROY BARNES erased from HIS memory. Please never mention their relationship to ABED again. Thank You, Lacuna Inc.” the card read.

“Why do you sound so calm?”

“Because I knew he was doing this? Did you not?” Britta eyed him quizzically

“No! I would have done something to stop it, had I known, maybe made a speech!” Jeff began pacing around the kitchen “Don’t you resent this entire business model as a psychiatry student, knowing that it’ll prevent personal growth, the need for closure, and ultimately, the need for psychiatry?”

“Oh my God,” Britta dropped the card in her epiphany. “You’re right.”

“Unsurprisingly.” Jeff retorted.

“I’d suggest we go down to Denver and stop him, but we’d never make it in time.”

“We might.” Jeff started. “A lawyer friend of mine owes me a favour, and this lawyer friend just so happens to have a private jet. I’ll ask him to have his pilot bring it to the roof. Go get dressed.” Britta nearly bristled at the conceit of allowing a straight white man order her around, but Jeff was already typing away at his Blackberry.

-

A semi-sedated Abed exited the hospital following the procedure, arm in arm with a determined-looking Annie who struggled with helping him support his weight. 

Simultaneously, LeVar Burton handsomely tipped a waitress who began unsubtly freaking out at the sight of LeVar Burton, and nearly fainted when he told her to live long and prosper with a wink and a Vulcan salute. Troy looked at her with a sympathetic grin and mouthed “Right?!”.

Jeff and Britta exited the private jet, looking beautifully windswept in a James Bond way, despite how much Britta contested the very conceit of Bond Girls.

They were all heading towards the same hotel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s real cliffhanger hours in this fic, sorry lol. I’m out here making two part chapters as if the events of every chapter aren’t dependent on each other.


	6. Of All The Hotels In Denver, You Had To Walk Into Mine (Part 2/2)

Troy is the first to register the entire study group in the lobby, shocking everybody but Abed, because Abed didn’t recognize him and was also far too spaced out to register much of anything.

“Oh my God, Abed!” His hand clapped to his mouth and bounded towards the lanky and unassuming man. 

Abed’s brow furrowed, and he looked to Annie in a silent and confused plea as Troy wrapped his arms around the taller man’s slim frame.

“He’s probably a fan of yours.”

“What?” Troy exclaimed, visibly deflating. His wide eyes made him look endearingly like a lost puppy, thus filling Annie’s stomach with enough guilt to make her nauseous.

“Hey, it’s LeVar Burton!” Annie pointed at the celebrity with a tight grin, grasping for a way to talk to Troy alone and diffuse the situation.“Go ask him to support your bodyweight while I talk to this guy, alone.” she pointedly addressed Troy.

“Did he- did you-” Troy faltered. “forget me?”

“I didn’t, but Abed just had his memory erased of you.” Annie explained solemnly. “He was heartbroken without you.”

“Oh.” He frowned, crestfallen. His body language made it clear that a sob was coming. “Oh.” 

“AndImayormaynothavesuggestedtheprocedure.” Annie rushed through the words, hoping that he wouldn’t hear them.

“Annie!” Troy shouted, appalled. “How could you?”

“I know it sounds bad, but you didn’t see how bad Abed was doing, and we thought you were never coming back so there didn’t seem to be any consequences!”

“You’re jealous of us! That’s what it is! I’m not sure which one of us you decided you wanted, but you decided that breaking us up would be the way to go!”

Annie gasped “How dare you insinuate that I would take advantage of my friend and manipulate him for my own romantic gain?”

“Shit, I don’t know, maybe because you manipulate people?! You’re like Jeff, but he’s actually good at it!” 

“If you were going to take so much issue with the memory-erasing, you should have said something while you were here, helping Abed with his mental health and cleaning up after him and making his food every day while he hit rock bottom!” Annie’s tone was overwhelmingly saccharine. “OH WAIT. YOU WEREN’T. THAT WAS ME.”

“That wasn’t my fault, it was Pierce’s! I would have stayed if I could, but I had no choice!” Troy yelled, trying to convince both Annie, himself, and a groggy Abed who was craning his neck to overhear. “You took away my best friend. The love of my life. He and I are the only people who understand each other.” Heavy tears began falling down his face. 

“Troy, I’m sorry.” Annie said, her voice catching as she shifted out of debate mode and saw how much her friend was hurting.

“So am I.” Troy said, words biting as he choked back tears and walked to the front desk to book a room. 

“Who was that?” Abed walked loosely over to Annie, still barely able to support himself. “And why was he yelling?”

“He was, um, performing a monologue.” Annie answered skittishly. “Performing it for you, he wanted to be in your next movie.”

“Oh, shame he rushed off. He was a great actor, and very good looking. You don’t get that often, that’s why most cinematic character actors are ugly people.”

-

Continental breakfast is arguably the least romantic part of staying in a hotel. But, it’s where Abed joined Troy at a banquet table, while eating shitty, watered-down oatmeal the next day, because Troy and Abed are subversive like that.

“Hey, I heard your monologue.”

“What?” Troy almost dropped his coffee.

“The monologue you did in the lobby. Annie told me it was for me, so you could be in my next movie. Did you write it yourself?”

“Yeah, I did.” Troy answered, stabbing a fork into a pile of cubed fruit and he wondered if that was technically a lie.

“Well, it was really good. We should meet for dinner sometime.”

Ladies and gentleman, we have just lost cabin pressure, Troy thinks to himself. “That’d-” Troy short-circuited. “That’d be really cool.”

“There’s a diner across the street from the hotel, I’ll be there at eight. I’d like to see you there too.”

“Oh, okay. I would like to do that also.” Troy said, heart threatening to beat out of his chest. Abed was, however professionally, asking him out. Abed in his dinosaur pajamas, Abed with hair still mussed up from last night, Abed with toothpaste at the corner of his mouth, Abed, Abed, Abed. “Thank you.”

Abed smiled, feeling completely clearheaded for the first time since his surgery. “I look forward to our partnership.”

Then, Troy actually did drop his coffee, causing a minor spill.

-

Troy, filled with butterflies and warmth and other stereotypical things of that ilk, retreated back to his hotel room, where he was unsure about who to express these feelings to.

He quickly realized that in any other situation, he would be calling Annie, and he felt sad.

Perhaps it was the afterglow of being invited on a date that was in no way a date, perhaps it was Pierce’s ghost taking the wheel (she always was his favourite), or perhaps the trip actually did make him a man, but some force compelled Troy to take the corded phone in his hotel room and dial Annie Edison’s phone number. 

“Annie I know I’m mad at you and stuff and you did a bunch of bad things but I’m really bad at holding grudges. And object permanence. I think those skills overlap somehow. But, whatever, not important, what is important is that Abed just asked me on a date that isn’t at all a date.”

From there, Annie started happy-crying and gushing, and then Troy started crying and gushing because she was crying, and then Annie kept crying because Troy was crying. The call was mainly crying and gushing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you spent multiple months waiting for this fic to update while I was having a mental breakdown, no you didn’t❤️
> 
> but fr i’m really sorry for making y’all wait even though my writing isn’t even that good and i’m definitely overestimating how much people value it.
> 
> if you wanna be homies i just made a community twitter and the @ is @trobediscanon!
> 
> I’m gonna update this soon istg!!


End file.
